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KAMLOOPS - Top receiver Emmanuel Arceneaux is unable to catch the ball, and star quarterback Travis Lulay unable to throw it well enough. Other than that, the B.C. Lions’ offence is fine just 18 days before the start of the Canadian Football League season.

Arceneaux’s departure from training camp due to a broken hand suffered Saturday added more angst to regular season preparations for the Lions, but there has been a level of unease since Lulay torqued his surgically repaired throwing shoulder on Day 1 of camp and had to throttle back.

Head coach Mike Benevides said Arceneaux, who saw a hand specialist Monday in Vancouver, probably will be out no more than four weeks. Lulay could be fully fit before then. Or not.

The Lions simply don’t know when to expect Lulay, who said after another morning of careful, measured passing here that he had hoped to be making full throws by now after undergoing labrum surgery in November.

Benevides has already ruled out Lulay for the team’s pre-season opener Friday in Edmonton, and it looks increasingly likely the CFL’s 2011 most outstanding player may not be ready for the Lions’ first regular season game on June 28 at home against the Eskimos.

Lulay has had shoulder issues most of his career.

“Physically, Travis is the only one who knows how he feels,” general manager Wally Buono said Monday. “Yes, I’d like Travis to be further ahead. Could he be? If he pushes himself too much, it’s a longer recovery.

“With Travis, we had certain expectations that we felt, based on our doctors’ knowledge, should occur. But (the need for Lulay to get healthy) is long term, not short term. If it was just about training camp, we’re losing here because it will be over soon.”

“I knew there was a chance I wouldn’t be ready,” Lulay said of camp. “But my hope and the way I prepared is that I would be, and they would have to be pulling the reins back on me.

“First day, I had a couple of throws and my arm let me know I wasn’t quite ready for that. There’s an unknown variable that only exists in a live setting. I can put a little zip on a throw if I know I’m going to drop back and throw this ball (to a specific spot). But the minute I drop back and read the defence and just react, I wasn’t quite ready for that.”

It is unsettling not knowing when he will be ready.

Although there’s no firm timetable for recovering from a shoulder labrum operation, the best-case scenario was that Lulay could be throwing fully within six months. That optimistic deadline passed in May. He wasn’t ready for training camp on June 1, and may not be ready by July 1. Who knows about Aug. 1 and beyond?

“I have to fight that thought,” Lulay said. “If I start going down that road, I’ll drive myself crazy. I’m human, so those emotions come out occasionally. But that’s a thought process I don’t want to have. Any time that creeps in, I focus back on day to day. I focus on the process.

“We’re competitive and sometimes whatever they tell us (for recovery time), you think: I’m going to beat that. I would have hoped at this point to be able to throw with a little more intensity. That being said, I can’t get discouraged because I’m not quite there yet. I still feel pretty good about the long-term outlook.”

The Lions acquired veteran CFL starter Kevin Glenn from Ottawa on May 13. They paid a steep price, surrendering a first-round draft pick for the 34-year-old. If Lulay can’t start, Glenn probably will, although former NFL quarterback John Beck has looked good in training camp, just as he did a month ago at the Lions’ spring mini-camp in Surrey.

Both Buono and Benevides insisted they had Glenn targeted all winter, and didn’t move on a trade because Lulay’s recovery was slightly slower than expected.

“In the span of 18 months, we have had three quarterbacks leave,” Benevides said. “Mike Reilly has become a star (in Edmonton), Thomas DeMarco was claimed by Ottawa and Buck Pierce retired.

“The hope was that Travis would be progressing. But I had never intended in using him in pre-season (Game) 1. My goal was to potentially get him some work in pre-season 2. We still have 13 days to figure that out. Athletes want a timeline. Where should I be today? Where should I be tomorrow? But sometimes you just have to go with it. You can’t make hard timelines on everything.”

Glenn, who went 20-8 as a starter in Calgary the last two seasons, said every quarterback needs to prepare as if he is playing, regardless of his position on the depth chart. He said he learned of Lulay’s shoulder only after the trade, but was willing to be second on the depth chart because the Lions were honest about their quarterback situation.

Glenn demanded out of Ottawa after the expansion team claimed him December to be its starter, then signed free agent Henry Burris in February.

“The trade was to get a player of that calibre for the circumstances we are under,” Buono said. “It protects us from the kind of setback that we’re having.”

What if the setback to Lulay is not brief?

“What if we didn’t have Kevin Glenn?” Buono said. “That’s the bigger question.”

•

After a lively team meeting late Sunday to discuss the tentative CBA with the league, the Lions’ player representative Paul McCallum revealed Monday the ratification process could take a week, although the union hopes to expedite the process.

McCallum spoke to reporters after a long, private chat on the practice field with team president Dennis Skulsky. “Just talking,” McCallum said.

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Lions quarterback Travis Lulay not ready for prime time

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